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Among the myriad transfers, loans, rumours and failed moves of deadline day, one of the more unusual deals got a little bit lost.
Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were in direct competition for a talented young striker who ended up joining Spurs having initially been targeted by their north London rivals, according to reports.
'I don't think it's the right move for him. He's better than that.'
18-year-old Scottish international striker James Wilson signed on the dotted line for Spurs but a Premier League club picking up a precocious young talent from a team north of the border is just the start of the story.
Wilson joined Spurs on loan with an option to buy and linked up immediately with the London side's under-21 squad. After seeing his Heart of Midlothian team beaten 1-0 at St Mirren on Tuesday, Wilson's former manager Derek McInnes was understandably nonplussed.
McInnes, whose team still lead the Scottish Premiership but have Celtic and Rangers breathing down their necks, said that the possibility of a loan within Scotland was mooted for Wilson, who was by no means a regular starter for the Jambos.
"His head was turned with the Tottenham thing," McInnes told BBC Sport Scotland. "First it was Arsenal, then Arsenal went quiet, and then all of a sudden Tottenham came to the table.
"I don't think it's the right move for him. Ultimately, it's academy football and I think he's better than that. But it was something James wanted to do."
Wilson's wishes are the deciding factor, of course, but also pertinent is the shade cast by McInnes on the idea of heading to the Premier League at the earliest opportunity even if it means a loan to an under-21 team.
By a quirk of the football gods and their big fixture machine, Hearts' conquerors in Paisley on Tuesday were the other team to send a teenager to a north London academy this week. St Mirren's Evan Mooney joined Arsenal at the age of 18.
A move too soon for Wilson and Mooney?
Both young Scottish players have backed their abilities to pass muster at two of London's biggest Premier League clubs with their eyes wide open to the long road and hard work ahead of them.
Yet McInnes raises an important question: Is academy and under-21 – even at top-level English clubs – the right place for a teenage prospect who already has some senior football under his belt?
It's certainly not the only option. McInnes' preferred outcome of a loan in Scotland with a possible recall would seem a good fit for Wilson, whose quality has been made plain but would arguably benefit from the physical lumps of regular men's football.
Hearts were all but toothless at a freezing St Mirren on Tuesday night. With the consequences of a bad red card habit finally coming back to bite them, Wilson would surely have been in contention to be involved and he might have made all the difference.
In FourFourTwo's opinion, young players like Wilson and Mooney are well within their rights to back themselves and take the appropriate advice about how best to maximise their long-term prospects.
Nevertheless, there is surely a risk of them getting lost in the shuffle while playing under-age football. Wilson in particular has essentially cracked the senior ranks, not playing as much or as soon as he'd like but doing enough to earn the trust of Scotland manager Steve Clarke in a World Cup year.
It's now up to the player to make sure not only that he stands out among the excellent academy players at a club that prides itself on player development, but also that he adds the robustness to his game that would have come from irregular first team football.
Clarke will be the first to make a value judgement on his move and one suspects an immediate return to the Scotland squad is more unlikely than it was a week ago.
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